Doom 4 1.0

Doom 4 1.0, not to be confused with id Software's eventual successful release of Doom (2016), is a cancelled first-person shooter that was originally intended as a of the Doom franchise. After being initially announced in August 2007, it suffered repeated delays and development setbacks until, in 2011, intervention by publisher Bethesda Softworks and parent company ZeniMax Media led to internal reorganization at the company. The game then entered a period of "rolling reboot" which would last until the new concept which became the final "DOOM" solidified in 2013.

History
Early development began in August 2007, according to comments made at that time by John Carmack. This was followed with an official announcement by id Software on May 7, 2008. It was begun shortly after the abandoning of an early concept project called Darkness, which was to be a game based on the horror aspects of Doom 3, and while id Software's then-upcoming title  was still in development. This would see id Software internally split into two development teams for the first time.

Several years would go by without any subsequent information being offered by id Software, leading to growing frustration by gamers and the gaming press when inquiries at the yearly convention were met with event cancellations; statements such as, "we can't talk about that;" or apologies by Todd Hollenshead for the continuing lack of information.

Finally, in April 2013, citing anonymous sources who had left the company in the wake of internal reorganization, published an article describing Doom 4 as trapped in "." The article claimed that the game had suffered under mismanagement, and that development was completely restarted in 2011, a detail which was later officially confirmed. According to one source, ZeniMax at one point issued an ultimatum for progress which led to the cancellation of , and the recombining of the separate id development teams.

Producer Marty Stratton, former project creative director Kevin Cloud, and new project creative director Hugo Martin later described the period between 2011 and 2013 as a "rolling reboot," beginning with an invitation from Marty extended to the staff at publisher Bethesda to discuss restarting work on the game. An anonymous third party remembered a quote from a frustrated John Carmack during one of the meetings leading up to this intervention: "Doom means two things: demons and shotguns."

According to Kevin, the id Software staff were concerned that the existing project had become something that "wasn't really capturing what we felt like was DOOM, and what the fans would want from it." Marty reiterated the common Call of Doom sentiment, and described the project as cinematic and story-heavy, with characters around and interacting with the player throughout. He mentioned that it took a long time for the game to get into the phase where the player could fight demons, starting out with exposition and then progressing into battles against zombified humans. Hugo referenced the 1997 film  with regard to how he felt about the project, saying that, unlike the original Doom, which had "one guy involved in big things," it was more about the "big things," and that in this respect, it sacrificed the character of the Doom Slayer. He called it a realistic depiction of the impact of a global hellish invasion.

Many staff members would not survive the project transition, including Todd Hollenshead, John Carmack, the entirety of id Mobile, and most of the id Tech programming team. Carmack's growing aggravation with ZeniMax with regard to his ambitions in had seen him reduce his role from lead developer to technology advisor, and would eventually lead him to depart id Software in 2013 to work as Chief Technical Officer for. Fallout from this departure would lead to which was concluded in 2016.

According to Marty, though it would be tempting for people to think that id Software "looked at this game and then scrapped it," there were actually many aspects of the project which continued to inform the later game's design. These include various basic elements such as locations and weapons, and in particular, the "sync melee" system which later became glory kills. During this rolling reboot process, numerous prototypes were produced, many still using the older game's assets until they had been replaced with new material.

Technology
The majority of the id Tech team had been focused on the development and completion of Rage, and according to John Carmack, would move over to the Doom 4 development team after that game had shipped.

Doom 4 was to be built on a minor iteration of the engine, and according to John Carmack as of July 9, 2008, would be targeted at 30 frames per second on consoles, in order to achieve better graphics performance than Rage. The engine, which Carmack intended to be would attempt to target 60 FPS for PC single-player, and during multiplayer games on all platforms.

Though no release platforms had been set in stone at that point, Rage had already been targeted at the then-current generation of consoles (the and ), as well as the PC, so it was widely assumed at that time, and later confirmed by Todd Hollenshead, that Doom 4 would follow suit. Carmack mentioned the, which had been confirmed as being in development by Sony, as a potential additional target.

Story
The game was to feature the player joining a rag-tag band of militants who formed an impromptu resistance against an apocalyptic invasion of Earth by the forces of Hell, making the game a modern remake of Doom II. This was first hinted at publicly by Todd Hollenshead, who made a statement apparently corroborating what was up until then fan speculation, stating that, "Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth". (emphasis added)

Later, portfolio by an ex-employee, which was released unofficially onto the web in February 2012, seemed to confirm this, displaying dramatic, post-apocalyptic cityscapes. These images were discredited at the time by id Software's creative director Matthew Hooper via Twitter, with him saying, "Those images have nothing to do with what you're gonna see in Doom 4. When we officially show things, you'll see awesome." These were later confirmed, however, by officially approved releases in late 2016 and early 2017.

A collection of in-game scenes from the portfolio of Mark Bristol was additionally leaked in May 2015, displaying some of the same locations featured in the concept art, use of tactical combat mechanics, and extensive scenes of cinematics and player interaction with non-player characters. Parent company ZeniMax met most instances of the video with take-down notices, but would later approve its partial inclusion into the noclip DOOM Resurrected documentary.

Mechanics
Rather than re-imagining the fast-paced gameplay of the original games, Doom 4 was to take a cinematic and linear approach driven by a war-drama-like plot featuring two-way dialogue between the player and characters, many elements of which can be seen in the 2015 leaked footage. Movement was meant to be realistically slow and tactical, with cover mechanics, hurdling and mantling over obstacles, and use of iron-sight aiming. This was a large part of what led to the game being referred to as Call of Doom by id Software staff.

One element which survived, in a transformed state, was a unique system for "synced melee" combat, wherein the player would be attached to an enemy to carry out animated close-up attacks culminating in a fatal final blow. This was retained and transformed into the final game's glory kill system, albeit with a much faster pace to avoid disruption of the flow of game play.

Another element that survived, albeit not into Doom itself, was the player cover/leaning system which ended up implemented in MachineGames' Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Monsters
A few of the game's monsters appear in screenshots released as part of the DOOM Resurrected documentary. Other enemies are known to have existed from the game's screenshots, in particular one or more variety of flying demons. These can be seen traveling in massive swarms in shots of the city where it is being subsumed into Hell, but the entities are too far away and small for any details to be discerned.

Imp / Wraith
An enemy with both imp- and wraith-like qualities is seen in the sewer tunnels. It is acrobatic like the Doom 3 imp, can climb on walls and ceilings much like the vulgar, and can instantaneously teleport behind the player in a manner similar to the wraith. Its attacks include a fast fireball, which it may throw ahead of the player in an attempt to anticipate his movement, and violently leaping toward the player to attack with a brutal scratch. Its skin has a muted red color with apparent necrosis in the extremities, and its head appears to be mutilated, with the upper portion entirely missing, revealing a bright red fleshy stump. It appears to have wires or tubes coming out of and returning into its back and neck.

Possessed human
A single former human zombie enemy can be seen during footage of the game's sync melee mechanic. A gray-cloaked, hooded man with yellow-glowing eyes, he carries a gun, but fights barehanded with dodging motions. This enemy has different variants such as a burning police riot zombie seen in a recent 2021 screenshot, and a shirtless version that appeared in an animation test.

Conjoined zombies
A zombie-like or demonic enemy consisting of two or more humans twisted and fused together, having multiple heads, each with vacant eyes, and multiple arms attached at unnatural angles which it flails about wildly. It also appears to be a melee-only enemy, and attacks by rushing quickly toward the player. As an unfinished asset lacking proper textures, it appears in a bright white color.

Possessed soldier
An armed form of former human appears in the glory kill test sequence. This enemy appears and animates similar to the final game's possessed soldier, and it may be possible that its model was based on this enemy's assets. It includes a gun which appears to be fused to its right arm, has gray blank eyes similar to the conjoined zombies, and has dark gray skin. It is not seen to fire its weapon during the brief sequence in which it appears, so it is possible that its attack logic was not yet complete.

Chaingunner
Another type of former human that can be seen for a couple of seconds in the leaked concept trailer from 2012, running towards the camera with a massive two-barreled chaingun in hand. This enemy only has its ripped pants for clothes, with a naked upper body showing a slashed-open torso of decomposing flesh and a rotting, black skull as its head. Some sort of humanoid creature also appears to be attached to its back, whose four arms are swinging wildly from side to side as the chaingunner runs forward.

Beta prowler
Another imp-like enemy which later became the prowler appears in the glory kill test sequence. This variety can crouch down, presumably to leap at the player, though it is killed in the sequence before it has a chance to complete the animation. As with the final version of the monster's model, its head appears to be made of bone, with two insect-like unattached mandibles for a lower jaw, and a large dark hole where most of its face should be. Without finished textures, the creature was plainly colored in this iteration. Its completed version in the released game has purple skin.

Hell knight
It is not known what the Hell knight initially looked like, but it was most likely reminiscent of the final version of the Hell knight from Doom (2016), as its design characteristics stem from the version of the monster that was in Doom 3. It is known from the first Doom Eternal game director play-through stream by Hugo Martin, during which he played the Hell on Earth level. Martin talked about the Hell knight when Joshua Boyle asked him about his favorite demon in the game, describing how both it and the imp were originally created for the canceled Doom 4 1.0 project.

Summoner / Arch-vile
A monster concept similar to Doom (2016)'s summoner appears in footage later released onto the Internet in late 2020. Like the summoner, it could levitate, but unlike it, it summoned additional monsters by opening portals in the floor, in walls, or in the middle of the air by firing projectiles of blue energy from its hands.

Cacodemon
The flying red meatball had its own incarnation for this game. It was seen in the multiplayer footage that surfaced in recent years. The creature is bigger in size and its design resembles to a Lovecraft-arthropod creature in shape with lava flowing through its skin. Its only attack method seen in-game is spitting a beam of lava to the player.

Lost soul
The small flying monster was shown in an animation test alongside the summoner/arch-vile creature coming out of a portal. Unlike its predecessors, its design has a tail and has metal parts implanted above the torso. An untextured model was stored inside the files of the dlc1 update from Doom (2016).

Weapons
Several weapons are visible among the various screenshots and video sequences of the game in progress:
 * Knife: The player carries a knife which can be used during sync melee attacks for finishing blows.
 * Handgun: A standard handgun that was seen in the 2013 glory kill animation pitch.
 * Shotgun: An ordinary pump-action shotgun can be seen carried by NPCs and possessed humans. It is also seen fired in first person perspective during footage of the 2013 glory kill test animation, but with a different model that was later adapted to Doom (2016).
 * Super shotgun: The series-standard double-barreled shotgun. It appears to be the last remaining artifact from Doom 4 1.0 to make it directly into Doom (2016), as it appears to be the exact same model but with different texture work than the final super shotgun. In recent footage and screenshots, the weapon can be seen with engravings that look closer to the final release.
 * Assault rifle: Assault rifles seem to be standard equipment for most members of the resistance, and the player is seen carrying the same or a highly similar model to that seen on NPCs. It is made of jet black metal, and it has a large which was likely usable for aiming and possibly for sniping. The base model and its reflex sight attachment for this weapon can still be found in the assets for Doom (2016).
 * SMG: A sub-machine gun seen by the player in first person and NPCs. The weapon appears to have a display built in, which its function of being a radar or a bullet counter remains unknown. A different texture variant with an unfolded display can be seen in the leaked 2015 footage and 2012 screenshots.
 * Machine gun: A machine gun can be seen in footage released in late 2020.
 * Chaingun: A chaingun can likewise be seen in the same late-2020 footage.
 * Chainsaw: An NPC can be seen to rev up a large, savage-looking version of the chainsaw during the celebratory cinematic scene shown in DOOM Resurrected. While this alone was not confirmation that it was intended to be a weapon in the game, additional footage later released on the Internet also shows the same weapon being used by the player against a possessed human.
 * Grenade launcher: Though not present in any in-game footage, it was used by resistance members in one of the leaked cinematic clips and later adapted to multiplayer from the final release. An image silhouette from its original Doom 4 form resides inside DOOM 2016's launch files.
 * Bullpup rifle: A tactical rifle seen in the 2013 glory kill animation pitch.

Equipment

 * Com watch: A watch that serves as a compass allowing the player to track level objectives pointed by a green arrow and for yellow that points to incoming threats.
 * Grenade: A fragmentation grenade. Its untextured model remains stored in the final release.

Characters
Numerous characters appear in the leaked footage, but almost nothing is known about them aside from the identity of the protagonist.

Settings
A significant number of near-future locations were created for the single-player and multiplayer component, including many destroyed city locations around New York such as an old library, a sewer tunnels level, and a warehouse. These and other levels were in various stages of completion, from work-in-progress concepts to playable demos. From the recent 2020 Multiplayer footage and the 2013 "glory kills" animation pitch, a quarantined school extraction zone was also shown. Of all locations known to be a part of the rolling reboot, only one is currently known to have survived into the final game in some form: according to Marty Stratton, the Foundry began as a much simpler level intended for Doom 4.